If Only to Keep Him Quiet
by RubberPlant
Summary: A James and Lily fic about their first 'date', though Lily won't admit it. Finished! Thanks to everyone who reviewed.
1. Indecision

**I do not own any of the characters in this ****fanfiction****. All characters belong to ****J.K. Rowling**

It was slightly too cold to have bare arms, but in a jumper the heat would be stifling. But she didn't want to be caught without a jumper in case it got cold and look silly shivering. Instead Lily opted for a long sleeved top. It was a deep purple with a v-neck. She put it on, then realised it clashed hideously with her hair. She hurriedly searched through her trunk for another. On her bed lay several similarly discarded tops and skirts and jeans and cords which had been through the same experience of indecision.

James had been up and ready for two hours now, and sat in the common room of Gryffindor tower making a mental list of topics to talk about over the approaching hours in Hogsmeade. He had wanted this occasion to come about for years now, since his first year in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but now it had arrived he was panicking more than a little. He had never had trouble thinking of things to say around Lily Evans before, but the thought of the upcoming hours spent alone in her company seemed to push every possible conversation topic out of his head. A mild panic had awoken him this morning and as he showered, dressed and, now, sat in front of the fire, it had increased to one that would double the amount of sweat on his hands every time he wiped them on his trousers.

Lily pulled on a pair of light blue jeans and, leaning over her trunk, extracted a pale green short sleeved shirt that was the colour of mint ice cream. It smelled a bit stale so Lily cast a charm to make her wand blow cool air on it, to air it out a bit. After doing this for a minute or so, she flapped it out of the window once or twice. Sniffing it hesitantly she decided it was quite fine now. Putting it on and buttoning it up, she also pulled on a deeper green cardigan which lay discarded on her bed. Quite content now, she turned her attention to taming her long, red hair. It was taking a ridiculous amount of time to get ready this morning, Lily thought to herself. Usually she didn't give to much thought to her outfit, confident in the knowledge that all her clothes suited her and that she didn't choose her outfit for anyone but herself, with function as the main priority, not fashion. But today was a different matter. For some reason she had accepted James Potter's invitation to Hogsmeade, if only to keep him quiet. It hadn't worked, of course, and now the whole of Gryffindor knew first hand they were going to be spending the day together, and the rest of the school knew through gossip none-too-quietly passed in the corridors. And today, she thought with a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach, seemed to be the first day she had given more than a second thought to what she would be wearing.

James was getting restless now. If only he hadn't woken so early, he thought. Pacing in front of the empty fire might get rid of some of this excess energy. Glancing around the common room to see whether Lily had slipped in unnoticed by him, he stood up and started pacing, wringing his hands as he did so. No, she hadn't emerged form the girl's dorm yet. Usually Lily was one of the first up, James recalled. He hoped nothing had happened, that she hadn't changed her mind! This thought redoubled the anxious pacing and it was when he had his back turned to the girls dormitory that Lily finally emerged, to the sight of James silently convincing himself she must have tripped over her trunk which led to her banging her head on the wall, falling unconscious and now must be lying in a coma, unnoticed by anyone. When he turned and saw her, James let out a sigh of both relief and nervousness and struck his winning smile, though he thought his eyes might betray his thoughts.


	2. Conversation

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to ****J.K. Rowling**

**Thanks for reading!**

Lily thought James looks somehow different today, but she couldn't quite place why. Perhaps it was seeing him out of school uniform. But no, she saw that every weekend so that couldn't be it. Before she had time to ponder it further James was standing in front of her, offering his arm. Lily accepted it, somewhat hesitantly as she wasn't used to James being this gentlemanly. Usually she'd have to deal with his immature antics, usually in their meetings for head boy and head girl. Actually, she thought to herself, this was one of the very rare times her and James were alone together without a prearranged reason, like one of the prefects' meetings. This suddenly made Lily feel very nervous, and all conversation topics seemed to disapparate from her mind.

James cursed himself silently for offering Lily his arm, it was obvious to him that she found the gesture unusual and was reluctant. As they reached the portrait hole James looked back into the common room and cast around for his best friends, the Marauders. Catching the eye of his partner-in-crime, Sirius Black, he grinned widely and followed Lily out into the corridor. Outside the portrait hole they really were alone, and James now felt very tall and cumbersome compared to how gracefully Lily was composed. He started to walk but felt like his feet were twice their normal size.

Lily walked in silence, remembering to hold her shoulders back and head high. She didn't want to slouch in front of James and give him a chance to make fun of her. As they got nearer the Entrance Hall, Lily started to worry that maybe she should say something. She tried to think of something that would get James talking so she wouldn't have to start up conversation topics herself. What would get James Potter nattering for hours? Quidditch! She tried to remember the names of any popular Quidditch teams but couldn't recall any, so settled on the school teams.

"Gryffindor flew really well in the last Quidditch match, didn't they?" She said, suddenly.

James had been wrapped up in his own thoughts on what to say, and let out a sigh of relief that she had initiated the conversation. He was slightly surprised that she had brought up Quidditch, something he was fairly certain Lily had little interest in, but relieved all the same as he could talk for England about Quidditch.

"Yeah, I think we'll do really well this year. Everyone's been flying well and we've got a really good team, who're all committed and on _great_ brooms. Our tactics are going to win us the cup, I'm sure. Some of our moves are new and... "

James trailed off. He didn't want to carry on as he glanced at Lily who seemed to have a glazed expression on her face. He thought about what might interest her, and remembered she was very good at potions. But he doubted whether she would want to talk about classes on the weekend. Maybe he could use this rare occasion to find out a little more about the elusive Lily Evans.

"So, um, what do you want to do after Hogwarts?"

Lily had hardly noticed James had stopped talking about Quidditch, but quickly regained her composure. She paused before answering his question, however, as she hardly knew the answer herself.

"Well, I'm not sure exactly. When we had the talks about careers before we chose our NEWTs I hadn't decided, so I just chose subjects that interested me and I was good at really. All I know is that I want to help people, so maybe a Healer or working at the Ministry even."

They had reached the Entrance Hall now, so James didn't reply and instead walked over to the growing crowd that were soon to be heading off for Hogsmeade.


	3. Old friends

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to the amazing ****J.K. Rowling**

**Thanks for reading everyone! Please review as it makes me smile lots!**

Lily felt like everyone was looking at her. This was not unreasonable, as every girl was glaring at her with envy and every guy was amazed that James Potter had finally managed to persuade her to go on a date with him. This novel attention made a blush creep into her cheeks which she tried to hide with her long locks. Unfortunately she knew it was too late and James had seen her pink face. Lily knew that a remark would be on its way soon from James, and she braced herself.

"If you're blushing just because you're alone with me, imagine now red you'll be when I kiss you."

Lily turned her face to his, incredulous.

"When?! Try 'if'! And even then it's not likely." Lily retorted.

Instead of James being discouraged by this statement, he seemed to gain confidence from it and began grinning to himself.

Lily started to really regret agreeing to go to Hogsmeade with James now. Especially as she saw in the corner of her eye her old friend Severus look at her and James, an expression of disgust and hurt on his face, then turn his back on them and walk in the opposite direction. This made Lily feel so bad that she turned her eyes to the ground and frown with tears in her eyes. Lily had distanced herself form Severus for a while now, he had hurt her more than he could know. This had led her to spending more time with her fellow Gryffindors, and, in turn, the Marauders.

James saw Severus Snape look at him and Lily, and glare at them with a look of pure hatred. He wondered how someone could be so loathsome towards Lily when all she had ever done was be amicable towards them. He knew that Lily and Snape had been friends, and James hated Snape all the more for being so malicious towards Lily when she had only ever been nice. Ok, so maybe she wasn't nice to James himself, but she was always a good friend to Snape as far as James could tell. James looked at Lily to see if she has also seen Snape's expression, and found that she was on the verge of tears.

"Oh God Lily, ignore him! If he wants to act that way then let him. It's only going to come back to him and he'll get what he deserves. Just ignore him, don't let him see it gets to you."

Lily felt ill. She really didn't want to be walking right now. It seemed like forever until they got into Hogsmeade, and Lily headed straight for a secluded tea shop where she could get some privacy from the prying eyes of the rest of the students around them.

James didn't know where they were heading, they walked straight past The Three Broomsticks, and Lily raced past Zonko's joke shop and Honeyduke's sweet shop. He didn't get as far as asking Lily before she walked straight through a small door to a tiny café and sat down in a secluded corner table, so quickly James couldn't even take in the name of the tiny shop. James just stood dumbstruck by the table, having followed Lily through the shop, and then promptly sat down when Lily snapped at him to do so. James would have commented on how appropriate the café was for a date, if Lily hadn't been so upset.


	4. Calories

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to the amazing ****J.K. Rowling**

**Thanks for reading everyone! Please review and let me know what you think.**** Sorry if this is too short a chapter, but bear with me!**

Lily hadn't really noticed James was still with her, she'd been too intent on finding a very secluded corner for her to get some privacy in order to recover from Severus' scathing look. When she had looked up to see if James had followed her, partly wishing he hadn't, she found him standing gormlessly by the table. If he didn't sit down quickly people were going to notice she was there with him, so she shot him a remark, sounding just as impatient and rude as her sister, Petunia. Realising this, she felt worse than ever and apologised for her attitude.

"It's just sometimes you can't deal with everything all at once. I'm really stressed out by school work and some stuff at home, so this was the straw that broke the camel's back I guess."

Lily cursed herself for revealing that secret about back home. No one knew how badly things were between Lily and her sister, except Severus, but now, of course, she couldn't even confide in him.

James wondered briefly what could be the problem Lily was having at home, and then struggled to understand the next bit she had said,

"What camel?"

"Huh?" Lily said, confusedly. She had been lost in her own thoughts, "camel? Oh! It's just a muggle expression. It means everything was fine, but then one little thing set it all off and everything goes wrong."

James still didn't quite understand why there was a camel, but he let it be and quietly contemplated the menu. Scanning the hot drinks selection he decided on a cup of coffee, and maybe a chocolate brownie after a look at the cakes in the glass cabinet by the counter. Looking up at Lily to see if she had made a decision too, he saw that the light had caught Lily's hair and made it shine like copper. He sat there; mouth agape with his unspoken sentence, staring at this beautiful sight until Lily looked up from her own menu blushed again. James cleared his throat and looked away, not wanting Lily to feel any more uncomfortable than she already did, but nonetheless quite enjoying the blush that had crept up her pale cheeks.

A short waitress with greying hair came bustling up to their table and Lily welcomes the distraction. She ordered herself a hot chocolate, and James ordered a coffee and chocolate brownie. He asked her if she wanted any cake, but Lily declined, not wanting to owe James anything. This was a one off deal, she told herself, and they would not be spending any more time alone in each others' presence again. Once the waitress had left to make their order, Lily felt awkward again and wished the waitress hadn't left so James and Lily wouldn't have to make embarrassed conversation again. When Lily took a breath to start saying something, James did the same thing, and both ended up saying nothing not wanting to interrupt the other. Lily laughed, and then so did James, and immediately Lily felt much more relaxed.

"You go," she said.

James shrugged his shoulders to imply that what he was going to say wasn't very important.

"I was just going to say you can have some of my brownie if you change your mind about wanting cake. It'll be off my plate too, so the calories won't count."

Lily looked confused by this last statement, so he explained.

"If you eat something off someone else's plate, the calories don't count. And, because you break it in half, the calories fall out. Oh, and if you eat half, that's half as many calories, so you can eat twice as much!"

Lily laughed at this. To James this was a lovely sound, so he agreed with himself that this was his mission for today; to make Lily laugh as often as possible.


	5. Laughter

**a****I**** do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to the amazing ****J.K. Rowling**

**Thanks everyone for the reviews, they really do make my day! Which probably means I need a more exciting life?**

Now that their drinks had arrived, Lily wished she had taken James up on his offer and got a cake too. His chocolate brownie was the size of a brick, and looked as delicious as it smelled. Already she was feeling much better, and she vowed to herself not to get upset again today. She had already let James see her so vulnerable, she would not expose herself like that again. James was making his way through his brownie like there was no tomorrow, but seeing the look on Lily's face he rolled his eyes and broke off a part for her. When he held it out to her, Lily opened her mouth to protest, but instead got a mouthful of brownie shoved in by James. Coughing and spluttering, brownie went everywhere and, combined with James' roars of laughter, the entirety of the café sighed their disapproval.

With eyes streaming and coughing from both parts, Lily and James slowly recovered from their episode. James swept up the scattered brownie pieces on the table into a small pile and proceeded to try and stick them together again.

"There, good as new" He said, offering Lily to renewed brownie.

"I am not eating that. It's been halfway down my throat!"

James considered this for a moment, saw the sense and put down the brownie. He then picked it up again and shoved it straight not his mouth. Through a mouthful of chocolate brownie he said,

"Waste not, want not!"

The look on Lily's face was priceless. It was a look of pure shock and horror, as James devoured the brownie pieces. It was as if James was a small child whom Lily was babysitting, she thought. She quickly finished her, now lukewarm, hot chocolate and urged James to do the same with his coffee. Lily didn't want to be shown up any more, but the sight of James with chocolate covered teeth when he grinned, full mouthed, at her made her laugh so loud the people at tables nearby turned to look at the noise. Chucking some coins on the table she, red-faced, grabbed James' shoulder and half-dragged him out of the shop. To add insult to injury, James waved cheerfully at the waitress who had served them and attempted to bow to the customers.

Outside the tea shop James laughed in earnest, and had to hold his knees for support he was laughing so hard.

"Your... face! ...Priceless!" He gasped.

Lily did not look impressed. But, James noticed, the side of her lip twitched before she hastily turned away from him. He'd lost count of the amount of times she'd blushed today. Once he had regained his breath, he took a look around and tried to figure out where they could go next. There was a slight wind, so James took advantage of this and ran his hand through his hair. Windswept is sexy, he thought to himself.

Lily tried to keep a straight face as James practically wet himself laughing. When he had finally regained his composure, Lily turned to ask him if there was anywhere he wanted to go next. Unfortunately he had already reached her and James ended up with a face-ful of Lily's long hair as she turned. The wind caught it and it flew in all directions around her head. Windswept is most definitely not sexy, she thought to herself.

James recovered quickly after being whipped with Lily's hair, but also stopped to notice that her hair had a scent of flowers he had encountered before, and not just being around Lily. For some reason he had an image of a classroom. And then he had it, Professor Slughorn's Potions class. The previous Thursday he had showed the class a cauldron of Amortentia, an extremely powerful love potion. Since he rarely listened in potions class, he hadn't a clue why an ingredient might be this flower he could smell. At least he thought it was an ingredient. Perhaps it's the smell it emits, he wondered briefly before suggesting to Lily they head for the Three Broomsticks.


	6. Dancing

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to the amazing author J.K. Rowling. I only wish I owned them!**

**Thank you so much guys for all the reviews and adding this story to your alert list etc. It's really lovely!**** I'm not sure how often I'll be ****updating;**** fanfiction is not good when you're trying to do a degree!**

As they walked down the small streets in Hogsmeade, Lily actually felt like she was having fun. This surprised her, considering how much she loathed James, but what surprised her more was how normal it felt. Spending time in James' company was strangely natural today. She put it down to having spent less time with Severus lately, but was still slightly unnerved by the idea. James kept pointing out interesting shop windows, and a couple of times they stopped to have a closer look at the displays. It felt almost as if Lily was out with one of her friends. In one of the windows was a beautiful jewellery box, with miniature ballet dancers who performed a routine up the opener's arm.

James was so very relieved to finally not have to actively think of conversation. Lily and he were chatting animatedly, without hesitancy or awkwardness. A couple of times James even caught himself revealing things about himself that no one save his closest friends knew, just to make Lily laugh. He just hoped and prayed she didn't go blabbing to the whole school that his ambition when he was six was to be a dancer. After Lily's giggles had subsided, he added that it was, of course, until his discovery of broomsticks.

"I don't really like flying, it's always really scary whenever I do it" Lily said.

James looked at her with his mouth agape, "You don't like flying?"

Lily shook her head apologetically. She had never enjoyed flying on a broomstick, though did like to watch Quidditch when the school played. She just never had an urge to join the team herself. She'd never had the urge to break bones chasing after a ball in midair. Lily looked at James' distraught face and laughed whole heartedly. It was like she had offended everything he stood for.

"I'm going to have to change that, Evans." James said, shaking his head incredulously, as if he couldn't believe anyone could ever dislike flying.

"And how you suppose to do that?" Lily asked.

A mischievous grin spread across James' face, and Lily could practically see the plan formulating in his head.

"No." She stated, simply.

James changed from grinning to false hurt. "What?" He asked, innocently.

Lily shook her head at him, "I am never, I repeat: never, getting on a broomstick with you. Not on your life."

James laughed; he knew he'd been rumbled. But Lily, rather than giving him a string of insults as she usually would do, just rolled her eyes and cocked her head to indicate they move on from the shop window. He sidled up to her, and they carried on up the little street. Soon the Three Broomsticks came into sight, and suddenly James realised that the rest of the Marauders would be in there, as they'd had plenty of time to visit the other shops they usually stop at. James didn't want them to interrupt what was turning out to be a wonderful day with Lily, so cast around for an excuse not to go in.

"It's such a lovely day, why don't we walk up to the hills. Or maybe you want to head back to the castle?" James asked quickly.

"Head back?" Lily inquired, "But we've only been here a little while. Why do you want to go back to Hogwarts already?"

Lily was worried. If James wanted to head back to the castle, that probably meant he didn't want to spend any more time with her. Usually this thought wouldn't bother her; in fact, it would have been a relief! But today somehow she felt differently. Probably because everyone else was off doing their own thing today so she'd have no one else to spend time with, she assured herself. Walking to the hills sounded like a good idea, but she was really thirsty from all the laughing she'd done today, and they were right outside the Three Broomsticks.

"How about just one drink? I'm parched!" She suggested.

James seemed to be thinking hard, so Lily just rolled her eyes and dragged him by the arm into the pub.


	7. Greetings

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.**

**Thank you so much for all the reviews, please keep reviewing, or start reviewing if you haven't already! It's really nice to know I'm appreciated . and that you actually like what I'm writing :D**** Oh goodness, chapter 7 already****, and over 1000 hits**** Wow!**

A wall of noise hit them as Lily opened the door to the Three Broomsticks. It looked like every student in Third year and above had sat themselves in the cosy pub and were now chattering away. Lily led James to a nearby empty table, where they sat down and surveyed the surrounding room. She debated with the idea of getting something to eat as well as a drink, since the smell coming from the pub's kitchen was divine.

James quickly scanned the room for familiar faces. He looked for the long, dark hair of Sirius, or the mousy brown of Remus, or the slightly shorter head of sandy brown hair that belonged to Peter. He couldn't see any of them, so turned back to the table, slightly relieved. However, as he turned, he was greeted by the extremely close face of Sirius Black. He jumped back in shock, and promptly almost fell off his chair. Lily and Sirius both started laughing at this, and then so did Peter behind Sirius when he saw him do so.

"Where's Remus?"

"Getting drinks" Remus said, from behind James' head, making him jump.

Remus nodded his greeting to Lily, and then proceeded to sit down on the empty seat next to her. At this, Lily noticed James move his chair slightly closer to hers. When Lily turned to talk to Remus, she noticed he looked very tired, much more than usual. She sighed silently to herself. She suspected it was one of the boy's pranks or shenanigans that probably kept him up all night. Most likely exploding snap cards under his pillow or something of that sort.

James watched Lily talking to Remus, not really listening to what Sirius was telling him. When Sirius realised he was getting in no headway with James, he piped up to Lily, just to annoy him,

"So Evans, are you one of the Marauders now?"

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius, "No need to be so accusatory, Pads".

James held his head in his hands, he could see no way of getting Lily on her own again, now that the Marauders were with them. In fact, they probably knew how much he wanted them to leave, and Remus and Sirius were just sticking around to bug him. Peter, as usual, was quite oblivious to the subtleties of the situation.

Lily had never had anything against Remus, quite often they'd been very friendly when working together as prefects, but she'd also disliked the way he never tried to stop James and Sirius when they teased Severus. But looking at him now, she felt sorry for Remus. It must be hard being friends with the infamous James Potter and Sirius Black. It must take a lot to keep up with them. Lily realised that she was actually very thirst now, and stood up to go to the bar.

James looked petrified then quickly stood up too, hastily asking, "Where are you going?"

"To the bar."

A look of relief spread across James' features. He made to move out of the complicated maze of chairs around their table, but Lily stopped him.

"I'm a big girl, I can go on my own." She added.

James opened his mouth to disagree, but Lily turned her back on him and walked off to the bar. With her back to him, she didn't see the way his face fell as she left. However, Sirius did, and tried to cheer him up. Unfortunately, the only way he could think of was to lick his little finger and jab it into James' ear. His shout of horror and disgust drew the attention, and laughter, of most of the pub, including Lily, who was now waiting for the barmaid Rosmerta to open her bottle of butterbeer, leaning against the bar.


	8. Thoughts

**I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.**

**Sorry this chapters taken a bit longer than the others, I've had a mountain of reading to do for university. Still do actually, so updates may be a little sporadic!**

Lily was propped up against the bar, facing the Marauders. She wondered if maybe she should offer to buy James a drink, since everyone else had on except him. Then she realised this would mean James owed her, and she couldn't have that. It would mean that he'd follow her around trying to repay her, any excuse to get close to her. But before she knew it she was walking back to the table and saying, out loud, to James Potter of all people,

"Do you want a drink?"

James replied, "yeah, sure," and walked with Lily back to the bar, after extracting himself from the web of legs belonging to Sirius and Peter, who'd spread themselves out both to get comfortable and also to annoy James.

"You guys are seriously starting to get on my nerves" He shot in a whisper to them, so Lily couldn't hear.

Remus and Sirius both donned identical looks of innocence, and mild shock that James would accuse them of doing such an awful thing as interrupt James wooing Lily. As James walked with Lily to the bar, he saw several faces turn his way. James, of course, was used to this as his antics with the Marauders often dropped him in the centre of attention, but he noticed Lily was hurrying to get across the room. She obviously wasn't used to this kind of treatment, as he had often seen when she was praised in class she would go slightly pink. When they reached the bar, Lily whipped round to check all faces had turned back to their own business, and promptly tried to catch Rosmerta's attention.

"What do you want to drink?" Lily asked James, when Rosmerta served a customer at the other end of the bar.

"I'll have a butterbeer. I'll get this, don't worry." He added as Lily reached into her pocket to fetch some coins.

Lily reluctantly put away the handful of coins she'd extracted, then leaned forward on the bar, resting her chin on her hand. James mistakenly took this as a sign she'd gotten bored, so hastily asked,

"Should we skip the drink? How about we head to Honeyduke's? I've heard they've got these new chocolates which, when you bite into them, have hot caramel inside."

"But what about your friends?" She asked, "Sirius, Remus and Peter came to sit with us, we can't just leave."

At this James looked over to his friends at the table he'd just left. He could hear Sirius' bark-like laugh from the bar, and it looked like they were having a fine time without them.

"I'm sure they won't mind." James assured Lily, "At all."

They made their way back to the table, and James told his friends he and Lily were leaving to go to the sweet shop.

"Ooh!" Peter squeaked excitedly, but was promptly silenced but a quick kick and a significant look from Remus.

"We'll see you later." Sirius added, with a wink, as Lily and James left the pub. Lily turned back and waved goodbye to the three guys. She was pleasantly surprised when they waved back, with sincere smiles on their faces. When she turned back and walked outside, she took a deep breath and smiled at James. She never thought she'd admit it, but today she was having fun. She'd always been a little bit uncomfortable with the knowledge James had feelings for her, but in a way his overt admission about it made things easier. She felt she didn't need to skirt around it, or try and work out underlying motivations for things. If James was doing something to get her to go out with him, he was usually quite blatant about it.

"Are you bored? You're not saying much." James asked, pulling Lily out of her reverie.

"Oh, no." She replied, with a smile, "I was just thinking."

James smiled back, though Lily was sure he didn't know the subject of her thoughts.


	9. Small Victories

**I do not own any of the characters in this fan fiction. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.**

**Sorry guys for the hit and miss updating!**** I am so, so sorry for not updating recently, I've had a lot of work as it came to the end of term. But I have just under a month now of only 2 essays to do, so expect more fanfic. ****Hope you enjoy, this is the last chapter! (unless I decided/am persuaded otherwise)**

James walked quietly beside Lily, who seemed to find everything they walked past charming as she smiled at every building and person. Several times James had had to put his arm on Lily's shoulders to move her along as she stopped to observe a shop window. He cherished these tiny moments where he was able to be close to Lily. She didn't seem to notice how his voice got quieter when he spoke, and couldn't feel how his fingers seemed to crackle with electricity when he felt the heat of her in them. Of course, this was all through several layers of clothing, but just as he was thinking this Lily grabbed his hand to pull him over to a doorway which had the age of the house written above it. James was far too shocked to take in what Lily was saying, as he was constantly aware that she still held his hand in hers. However, all these thoughts flooded out of his mind when Lily looked at him, and asked,

"What are you staring at?"

"Oh, um..." was all that James could muster. How could he possibly tell her, without freaking her out, that he wanted to be close to her all the time. He wanted to be inside that space which was around her. But of course if he said this out loud Lily would run a mile. No, best to keep his mouth shut and stay like this, than risk losing the little friendship they had.

Lily, a couple of times now, had caught James looking at her, though with slightly glazed eyes. She wished she could read minds and find out what was going through James' head behind those eyes. She remembered, with a pang, that Severus had been intent on learning the skill of Legilimency, though he had often scoffed when she compared it to the muggle notion of reading minds. With this thought she suddenly lost a part of her enthusiasm, which did not go unnoticed by James' unwavering stare.

"Cheer up; I'm sure they'll have more copies in soon." James said.

Lily just looked at him, wondering if she heard wrongly, since what James appeared to have said seemed to make no sense.

"Huh?" Lily asked, after a moment of staring blankly.

James nodded towards the shop window they were now standing in front of. There was a large 'sold out' sign leant against a copy of a book. James had obviously thought Lily's downcast expression was a result of this news. Lily half shrugged and suggested they head towards Hogwarts, since they were fast running out of places to stop at in the Hogsmeade streets. James agreed, and he and Lily slowly winded their way towards the distant castle gates.

Although James accepted that they had definitely exhausted most of what Hogsmeade had to offer, he was sad to have to leave since it meant their magical day together was coming to an end. James knew that once they were back at Hogwarts there would be plenty of excuses for Lily to drop him, and plenty of other people to occupy her time. Something which she would probably welcome, James added with a bitter afterthought. But he knew there was nothing he could do to postpone their journey back to the castle. And as if the fate knew his thoughts, it took no time at all before they were at the gates to the castle grounds. Lily walked beside him smiling, occasionally pointing out patches of flowers or soaring birds. James found Lily's smile more beautiful than any wildflowers could ever be, and the way the sun caught her hair more dazzling than any height a bird could reach. No sooner had he thought this did it come spewing out of his mouth.

"I think you're the most beautiful girl, woman," he corrected, "I've ever met. And not just beautiful as in looks, you are an amazing person to be around. I've felt so good today just spending time with you."

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but James continued before he lost his nerve, "Even if you don't like me that way. You know, don't fancy me, I don't mind because just being your friend would be enough. Well obviously I'd like to be more, but I'd rather be your friend than nothing at all. And you're probably feeling really uncomfortable right now but I need to tell you this because everything's been running through my mind today and I can't stand it. So there you are."

Lily was looking at the ground, trying to take in everything James had just said. She knew, had always known, James had feelings for her, after all he had practically shouted it from the rooftops, but by saying out loud with such honesty and sincerity had finally driven it home to Lily. By this time they had reached the castle and were now leaving the entrance hall.

"Listen," Lily started, "I have to go to the library for a bit to pick up a book for Professor Slughorn's essay."

James' face fell, he was certain Lily was making excuses to leave. She hadn't wanted to hear what he'd said at all, he just knew it.

Lily bit her bottom lip and shifted from foot to foot, "Look, I'll only be a minute. I'll see you back at the common room."

James was positive she was ditching him now.

Lily smiled at one side of her mouth, "Maybe we could do the essay together? I'm sure you haven't started yet."

James looked up at her so quickly he nearly cricked his neck. "Yeah, I'll see you later."

Lily smiled at him, then turned on her heel and quickly walked in the direction of the library. She was blushing such a deep red she could feel the heat radiating from her, and couldn't stop the smile spreading across her face.


End file.
